ABSTRACT
The utterly unpredicted advent of Covid-19 pandemic has profoundly changed human lives, not only in people habits but in their perception of related-density urban spaces and their use. Smart Cities based on technocentric efficiency are gradually replaced by a new city paradigm: the adaptive cities. The term “adaptive” inspires a new model of interaction between citizens, technology and spaces starting from urban characteristics and users’ needs towards a better accomplishment of the UN seventeen-SDG idea of inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities, thus stressing the social dimension. This scenario represents a new challenge in reshaping cities for policy makers, investors, planners and all actors involved in this innovative regeneration process that would comply with ESG criteria. A starting point of Adaptive cities is certainly represented by public spaces that have been rediscovered by people experiencing pandemic. The present paper explores under an evaluative lens the potential social impact of public spaces. Through literature and empirical evidence, it is then introduced the issue of measuring those values that pertain social and collective dimension (extra-market values). Finally, it is discussed how intangible values can be integrated with the economic and financial framework through which policy makers and investors attempt to catch the social impact values. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.